It is common among some groups on the left to portray Israel as not
being a “democracy”. Bourgeois politicians on the other hand say that
Israel is the only “true democracy” in the Middle East. None of this
serves to understand the real nature of Israel. The Middle East
Panorama show on Resonance FM radio (London) sent Yossi Schwartz in
Israel a list of questions relating to this issue. Some parts of this
were read out on the show. Here we provide the full interview. See also in Arabic: هل إسرائيل دولة ديمقراطية؟

The media around the world made a big deal out of yesterday’s summit,
saying this time there is a real chance for peace in the Middle East.
But everything which was said and agreed to yesterday was more or less
the same as the agreements of the past, none of which worked. This
summit will end like the others, in failure. It is a film we have seen
before.

The Sharon government is held together by a shaky coalition of parties.
In the past period some have left, bringing his government close to
collapse. Now Labour has come to the rescue. With it it brings the
leadership of the Histadrut, the trade union federation. It is an
attempt to hold back the inevitable explosion of class struggle which
will come in the next period.

On January 9, Palestinians living in the occupied territories will elect the president of the Palestinian Authority. At the end of January the Iraqis living under the Anglo-American imperialist occupation will elect a new puppet government. In the present conditions that actually exist in both countries the idea that these elections will somehow be “free and fair” is somewhat of a joke, and a rather bad one at that.

In both the Palestinian Territories and in Iraq the imperialists are trying to get their stooges elected. In both there is growing opposition and the plans of the imperialists are proving to be more difficult to put in place. They may get the men they want elected, but they can’t convince the masses that life is getting any better. By Yossi Schwartz (December 24, 2004)